A new social network could facilitate the exchange of scientific ideas… and save literally billions of dollars in the process. A major problem facing the scientific community is the issue of transparency and availability for data and results. For example, Forbes recently profiled a Yale PhD candidate who desperately needed the original results of another lab’s similar experiment to complete the testing of his own hypothesis. However, it was difficult to access this information. For many lab scientists, this means the experiment in question must be replicated in order to get those results. The problem is that experiments can be expensive, and replicating some just to get data that’s already out there can add up to be a costly bill. By some estimates, as much as $27 billion is used on replicating experiments. An app called protocols.io seeks to change that. A social network for scientists, it serves as an open resource for these results to be readily available.
Read the full story at Forbes
Science
Fresh Findings about Relationship Between Regulation of DNA and Common Illnesses
There’s a lot of major diseases out there that a one could suffer from. Once a patient acquires any of diseases, DNA wraps around specialized proteins called histones in the cell’s nucleus. The histones then work to keep DNA tightly packaged, preventing expression of genes and replication of DNA. This prevents the required cell growth that is evident in those who don’t suffer from some of the world’s most common diseases.
Researchers from the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Alberta have discovered a method of modifying and manipulating histones of the acetyl-group. They published their study and findings in the journal Cell, and it was subsequently reported by Science Daily. The researchers experimented with attaching a molecule called acetyl-CoA that enables relaxation of the DNA, allowing for a return of regular replication of DNA and gene expression. This mechanism, entitled “epigenetic regulation of DNA,” is crucial for normality of functions and in working against common diseases such as heart disease or cancer.
Department of Medicine postdoctoral fellows Gopinath Sutendra and professor Evangelos Michelakis led the team of researchers. Their ultimate findings grew to be even more detailed than anticipated, as the team also worked with an enzyme entitled Pyruvate Dehydrogenase Complex (PDC). This enzyme can find its way to the nucleus and work to generate the acetyl-CoA for histones. This particular finding shed light on the before unknown origins of acetyl-CoA in the nucleus.
According to the researchers, these findings will change strategies used in the war against cancer and other common diseases. The application of the findings in regards to how DNA is regulated could have larger implications as well, if future research aims to seek out further influences.
UT Southwestern Announces New Regenerative Research Center
The UT Southwestern Medical Center is one of the premier academic medical centers in the nation, notorious for pioneering biomedical research. According to an article completed by News Wise, the medical center is continuing to hold true to this tradition, as it announces the creation of a separate center dedicated entirely to researching regenerative medicine.
The new center is made possible due to a charitable contribution from the Hamon Charitable Foundation that totaled ten million dollars. The goal of the newly formed Hamon Center for Regenerative Science and Medicine will be to understand the basic processes and contributors to the development of tissue and organs. From there, the center hopes this information can be applied to creating new approaches towards healing and regeneration, specifically in terms of stem cell biology, tissue engineering and organ fabrication. In essence, researchers hope to use the knowledge they gain to help regenerate, repair and replace damaged tissue brought on by age or accident.
Leading the center will be the renowned Doctor Eric Olson, who is known for his contributions and insights into the degeneration, regeneration and development of the heart. For his work, Olson has received numerous awards, titles and honors, including several elections to key scientific panels. He has served on the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In the last two years, he has received three prestigious awards.
Olson has served as a member of the UT Southwestern team since 1995, when he was recruited as the founding chair of the Department of Molecular Biology. With this experience, Olson will work to establish the center based on a combination of collaborations. Existing faculty will be recruited to assist on upcoming projects, in addition to new junior and senior colleagues who will be brought in to specifically work for the Harmon Center.
The Real Polar Vortex
If you’ve been visiting or living in the United States at all this Winter, chances are you’ve heard of the polar vortex and the havoc its wreaking on most of the nation. Temperatures in the midwest plunging well below 0 degrees fahrenheit, an unusually cool southeast, frigid air along the eastern seaboard. And given the association of “polar” with “cold”, and “vortex” with “something disastrous”, it makes sense that the label would stick. But “polar vortex”, is a sensationalist term that makes one wonder if the media knows what a polar vortex actually is.
John Timmer at Ars Technica elucidates the misunderstood concept of the polar vortex. The polar vortex, he says, is simply a jet stream that contains that cold arctic air within, well, the arctic. During the wintry months, the arctic sees less sun, and atmospheric temperatures fall as a result. This creates something called a temperature gradient between the cold arctic air to the north and the warmer air of the south. An effect of the temperature gradient is a pressure gradient. Pressure gradients produce high winds along that north (cold) and south (warm) meeting point. These fasts winds are known as jet streams. The jet stream that circles the arctic is known as the polar vortex. The polar vortex acts as a sort of border, trapping the cold air in the arctic regions. In fact, if you ever look at a picture of it, you see that the polar vortex is located far north. Generally, unless you like cold air, you want that polar vortex to be strong in order to keep the cold air away from you.
But any time we hear the weather reports, we are bombarded with messages about how “the polar vortex is gripping the nation.” Why? Well, they kind of have the idea backwards. The Ars Technica article explains why a strong polar vortex is desirable, because it keeps the cold air north. So what the United States is currently experiencing is a weakened polar vortex. So technically, we are experiencing the temperatures associated with polar vortices, but this one is particularly weak.
Global warming seems to be the culprit for this excessive cold. Though that thinking may be counter intuitive, there are several reasons why a warmer climate could be the culprit:
1) Decreased snow and ice cover leave dark water and stretches of land exposed, which will absorb sunlight
2) Due to rapidly melting snow and ice, more water vapor is ascending into the atmosphere, i.e. more clouds. In the dark arctic winter, clouds insulate the arctic and the resulting condensation releases heat into the atmosphere.
Jet streams then meander, and this movement weakens the wind all together, causing the jet stream to move slowly. It’s like cold air is being locked into place. And that’s what we’re experiencing.
This is but one explanation, but the scientist behind it all, Jennifer Francis, has noted there has been no one to produce “contrary evidence”.